Monday, July 7, 2014

Old Rag FKT.. by the skin of my teeth!

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not that much of a planner. But even if I was the opportunities for me to
get out for a day to attempt an FKT on Old Rag Mountain were slim, so with my wife
and son at the beach with her family and nothing to do until my 6pm track
practice I figured today would be as good as any. I woke up a little later than I would have
liked to, ate some breakfast, threw my mountain bike, inflatable kayak, and
slackline in the car, in case I had some free time after the run, tweeted about
my attempt and took off for the mountain at around 9:30. The first thing I
heard on the radio was that it was going to be mid 90’s and I cringed. Heat has never been my friend. Still I felt confident that the 39:50 ascent and 105:49 full loop that
Neal Gorman had run in the fall of 2012 were well within my reach.

The Ridge Trail on Old Rag. A seriously fun run!

I had wanted to make this attempt
for a while. I had spent a remarkable
amount of time on the mountain when I lived close by a few years ago before I
knew that record times existed for runs like this, or that people even ran
them, so I was well acquainted with the trail, and very sure of my ability and
that, on a Monday the trail would be clear.
When I pulled into the Nethers parking lot however it was nearly full
with at least 60 cars. I stepped out of
the car and began sweating immediately.
I renewed my yearly park pass, grabbed a couple water bottles and my
GoPro and headed up the road to the trail head.
The climb to the trail head on the road was exposed and though I was
running easy I was hot and having doubts.
I thought of calling it off. But then I remembered my twitter post.
Freakin twitter. All 7 people that saw my post knew I was out here. I was locked in now. When I reached the top parking lot I veered right
down a narrow path on the opposite side of the lot from the trail head. At the bottom of the trail was an ice cold
swimming hole and I planned to dip before I ran. I stashed my bottles and camera in the woods
by the swimming hole, downed a honey stinger gel, hopped in the water and then
put my shoes on as quickly as possible so I could get a couple miles in before
I dried off. Back at the trail head I
slipped a soaking wet buff around my neck, a soaking wet hat on my head, donned
my sun glasses, started my Garmin, tagged the cement post that marked the trail
head and started running.

Trail head

Pre run selfie

My legs
didn’t feel amazing but the opening mile went a little quicker than anticipated
in 9:41, traffic at this point was light, and although I was getting warm I
felt easy so I maintained my effort. I
hit the first overlook at around 2 miles in 20:30. I knew from Neal's blog, which also provides some great info on the mountain and it's running history, that he had reached this point in 22:17. It was then that things started to fall
apart. The trail left the woods and undulated
over under, and through massive boulders that were already baking in the sun. Normally my favorite part of the run, I immediately
became miserable in the heat. Traffic
also picked up and although I didn’t have to slow down much, I knew that after
passing ten or so people I had to be losing ground to Neal’s ghost runner
behind me. Previously, I had in the back
of my mind, hoped to break an hour, that goal was off the table now and knowing
I had small cushion I tried to enjoy the gnarly rock scramble and stay within
my limits. I felt tight and slow. Years ago when I spent a lot of time on the
mountain I knew every rock and step,I would FLY through this section. Today I felt myself baby stepping. Still I was climbing well and figured I would
reach the summit around 37 minutes barring disaster. Disaster struck in the squeeze, a narrow
steep section between two rock walls. It’s
always wet and slippery and halfway up a large triangular shaped rock about 5
feet tall presents itself as an obstacle to climbers. It’s often bottle necked with people and as I
feared when I entered 5 guys with packs and basketball shorts from the 50’s
were trying to squeeze themselves between the top half of the rock and the
right hand wall. The 3 at the back
stepped aside to let me pass but for a painful minute I stood watching the
other two straddle the rock and struggle, legs kicking and balls scraping, to
the other side. As soon as I could
politely move I went straight over the top of the jutting rock and was back on
my way. The trail was immediately
clogged with more people, and with respect to all hikers and runners, I passed
with care and a thank you! It wasn’t
long until the trail opened up into a large level ridge of boulders. With more maneuvering room I quickly made my
way to the other side and soon was at the summit. I veered right from the post that marked the
top and made my way to the highest rock on the mountain. I slapped the top with my palm not taking the time to pull
my whole body up. My watch read 38:26,
an ascent record although I am relatively sure I have run it faster in the past. I shook out my legs and headed down.

Negotiating the squeeze with Leah, Josh and our dogs back in 2009

One of my best runs ever on the mountain back in 2010!

The
next few miles of descent flew by. The trail
down is technical but very runnable and knowing I had a cushion of 1:24 I
relaxed and let gravity do the work. I
was halfway down, entering my last “danger zone” a narrow section of rocky
trail formed into steps, that passes between two boulders when I saw the line
of people. I recalled seeing a white bus
in the parking lot and knew this must be that group. There was hardly room to pass so I walked
until I made it to the front of the crowd.
I glanced at my watch and knew it would be close. I forgot about running relaxed and bombed the
remaining single track. I reached the
fire road at 52:39 only 29 seconds up on Neal.
From here he had averaged 5:14 pace.
This was well within my reach but as the mercury passed 90 I wanted nothing
more than to stop. The air grew thicker and I started getting a little
dizzy. I backed off the pace and let my
legs turn on the downhill. When my watch
beeped for the next mile at 5:15 I knew I had it in the bag. I was uncomfortable but not pushing hard
enough to risk a blow up. I kept the
cruise on through the next mile in 5:05.
As my watch clicked past 1:05 the trail leveled out and then rose up to
the finish. My legs felt like lead as I
took the climb but I knew, although close that there was no losing the record
now. I tagged the cement marker for the
second time and then stopped my watch. 105:17! I felt more relieved than excited.

Spent after my effort.

I immediately grabbed my stashed water
bottles and headed to the swim hole. The
bottles had been meant for another loop of the ridge trail or maybe a run out
to cedar falls where I could huck myself off the rocks into a clear water hole. But I knew as I sat in the gloriously cool
creek that my running was over for the day.
I wouldn’t even run back to the car. Later I would head over to the Shenandoah River, pump up my kayak and
float to some cliffs that I could reach without having to run there. Then I would jump and float staying in the
water and away from the heat for as long as I could. In Neal's blog he mentiones the chance of possibly running sub 1 hour which I think is within reach. I would love to come back on a cooler day maybe in the evening and maybe with a few other guys to push things out there and give it a shot! Anyone in?